This week we talk about Podcast Madness and the call for Podcasters. Also letting you know what’s going with the HP Elite 2530p contest.

This week’s X510 DataVault Drawing: Hardwaresphere

Sponsor: Backup Now, Backup Often, Backup Off-site with Mozy Unlimited Backup – $4.95/Month! Use code “Geek” for 10% off! $50 a Year for Off-site Backup.
Sponsor: Solve technical issues faster with GoToAssist Express. Try it FREE for 30 days.

HP Road Show; Converged Infrastructure – Win a HP Elitebook 2530p from Geekazine and SDRNews

All Geekazine Podcast Show Notes are also on Delicious
To add cool items next week link on Delicious – geekazine podcast 136

Hotline – 608-205-4378 – geekazine (at) gmail.com

Download the show
Subscribe: Zune – iTunes – TechPodcasts – Blubrry – Stitcher

I – S.U.N. (Straight Up News)
Seattle Storm Sponsored by Bing
Zong is Paypal for Social Networks
Linux Planet – 12,000 Cloud Computing Deployments
Twitter Gets Cloudhopper SMS
HP to Acquire McAfee?
-McAfee to Give Refunds
Windows Home Server Vail Beta
Google Fined on Defamatory Message
Twitter DCMA Tweet Takedown
Retro iPhone Dock
HP Superdome Server in a Blade
Afghanistan Solution Once We Learn How to Use PowerPoint
Sexting on the Job Can Get You in Trouble
Geekazine Geocities-ized

Video -  Cramped Apartment? Turn into a Mansion (or Tardis)
QOTW – Does the FBI have the right to seize Jason Chen’s computer?

II
Ted Turner: Time Warner said Google is BS in 1998
iPad Malware Attack
Sony to Discontinue Floppy Production
Gizmodo vs. Apple: Jason Chen is in Trouble
-Dilbert on iPhone
FBI Suits Up on Intellectual Property
Kevorkian Van Off eBay

CES 2010 Video Feed – Geekazine
Check out the other podcast: Day in Tech History

Contacts: Twitter – Plurk – Myspace – Facebook Group – FriendFeed or Digg the Podcast. The Geekazine Podcast is under a Creative Commons no-deriv license

Music for Podcast by the John Masino Band

For Immediate Release:

Apr. 27, 2010: Podcast Madness – www.podcastmadness.com – has announced the 2nd Summer of Podcasts contest. A contest that brings podcasters and listeners together during the summer months, while giving away some great prizes.

The Summer of Podcasts contest started in 2009. The idea was simple: to help listeners find new shows and help podcasters grow their audience. Last year the contest was run by 15 participants giving 21 prizes to 125 entrants. This year, Podcast Madness hopes to have more diverse shows and a broader reach.

“I met some great people during last years contest and gained a few listeners to my shows.” Says Jeffrey Powers, organizer of Podcast Madness. “We had a great turnout and I hope to use this vehicle to really push all shows. And the best part is we are accepting all podcasts and videocasts from around the world.”

Sponsors from Wirecast (Telestream.com), Mozy (mozy.com) and Stitcher (stitcher.com) have already agreed to participate in the contest. Prizes will be announced toward the beginning of the contest.  Any company that would like to participate, should contact Jeffrey Powers at geekazine@gmail.com or 608-205-4378.

“Each participating podcaster will also add a prize to the list. During the 3 month contest, we will be giving prizes at the end of each month. Even the podcasters will have their names in a separate drawing to win prizes.”

For podcasters that would like to participate, head over to www.podcastmadness.com and fill out the Podcaster form. Codes will be given out last week in May.

Contact Information:

Jeffrey Powers
www.podcastmadness.com
geekazine@gmail.com
608-205-4378

Wait. I have to check my Facebook. No Messages? OK. Here I go.

iPhone Week 2

I sat down with a friend last night who also got one of the new 3GS Models. We went back and forth on what we liked and didn’t. He had a lot of paid apps, while I haven’t purchased a single one. I am taking my time and make sure that I am not paying 99 cents for something I am going to delete tomorrow.

I did play with a great little app from Master Card. It was quick and easy to use and worked phenomenally on the phone. But I think that it all is shadowed from the other functionality of the phone. Facebook and Twitter – As well as email – seems to be consuming the time.

Don’t get me wrong. I still believe a phone is made for calling someone. It is nice that I can do other things, too.

One thing that I miss though is the emulator I had on my 8125. I could put the phone on my computer screen and use the keyboard and mouse to do more work. I would love to see the same for the new phone. That, and the ability to keep the screen on longer than a minute while plugged in.

However, check out the video I created on Wed. I think it’s a pretty good quality:

Summer of Podcasts Contest

It’s now week 3 and the contest is still going. Yay! I’ve been talking to a couple more people and I think we have a few more prizes by the end of the month. The Podcast Carnivale is set for August 9th. We are looking for Podcasters to get online and talk. at 3 PM CST, we have the TechPodcasts Roundtable and at 6 PM CST we give away a lot of prizes. Gonna be a pretty cool day.

Workin on the site again

I was playing with some new software in hopes to add to the site. Also have been working on the next iteration in the “azine” line. When all falls into place, I should be able to move ahead to make everything a lot easier to do.

Podcast Rig

The Podcast Rig had some problems on Sunday. I couldn’t record “Week in tech History”, so I pointed to an episode from last year. Made me think if I am going in the right direction with this segment – after all, it’s been going for over a year now. It’s time to evolve.

Video is Tough

The studio is about 95% done. Lighting becomes critical in the creating of the video. But I am confident that the right mixture of light is there and will be testing it out next week.

The post-production, however, was tougher than before. It really makes me think about upgrading the computer, which I don’t have the funds for right now. Therefore, I have another plan which means double the production time. I am also banking on the fact that I now have a template in place as so it wont be as frustrating.

But I did have someone say to me – “Dude, you have a green screen in your basement?” Yes, I do.

It’s only the Sciatic

I had a rude awakening last week. My Sciatic Nerve flared up. Yep, I said Sciatic. I come to realize that since loosing the Gym membership (had to make some hard choices, you know) I haven’t been doing much physical activity besides playing music. Therefore, I am going to start working out again, which should be fun, and get me back on track.  That is, if I can stand…

Bad Weather

As a musician, weather can hamper your plans. This weekend was grey and cold. I lost a few shows because of it. It sucks, but it also gave me time to work on other things. That, and play with the iPhone some more…

I Can’t tell you

There is some big news that I cannot tell you. But just keep your eyes peeled as I am working on something that will help out the site.

That’s it for this week. Back to the grind, if I can stand up….

On August 9th from 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM CST, we will have the live event called “Podcast Carnivale“. During this event, we will talk to tech podcasters about different items. At 3 PM CST – Andy, Todd and Techpodcasts Network will hold a special TPN Roundtable. Finally, at 6 PM CST – we will be giving away all the prizes in the Summer of Podcasts contest.

If you would like to participate, all you have to do is let me know and I will sign you up. geekazine at gmail dot com.

Event: Podcast Carnivale
Why: Event to talk with Tech Podcasters, giveaways and more.
When: August 9th from 12:00 to 18:00 (6 PM) CST
Who: All that entered in the Summer of Podcasts Contest
Special: TPN Roundtable at 3 PM CST
Special: Drawing for “Summer of Podcasts” Contest at 6 PM CST

A couple weeks ago I was interviewed by Rich Albertoni for the Isthmus. It was for the article: Plugged In: In music and spoken word, local culture is embracing the podcast era. The article came out today in the Isthmus – which is a tabliod style magazine that comes out weekly in the Madison area.

In it, Rich talks with a good friend of mine in Mike Huberty of Sunspot about how and why they podcast. Other casts included were:

• The Partially Examined Life
• Kim and Jason
• Higher Ground
• Mad Toast Live
• No, THIS Is What I Call Music
• Elimination of the Snakes

It was a great time talking with Rich. I wished he would have used more content from our discussion, including the name of the Monthly meeting – the Madison Podcasters Group – part of the group Web608, along with what Geekazine really does, but with word limit constraints of conventional papers, it is what it is.

If you want to know more about Podcasting in Madison, check it out.

Busy Week
Thanks for coming to the site. We had another great week – busy week. It was a lot of fun and really productive.

Post – HPTF

Of course, we went to Vegas the week before to cover the HP Technology Forum Expo. Andy McCaskey, Kara Karsten and myself were working hard with interviews, product reviews and more. This week was planning to get some of the videos out to you. So far, we’ve posted the HP POD video on Friday and have a lot more coming soon.

Summer of Podcasts – Podcast Carnivale

This is what really took up the majority of the week. The last month I have been working hard in getting prizes together. Now it’s time to put a contest together. That is where the Summer of Podcasts comes in. Each week, Podcasters will be giving out codewords during their shows. We will be giving away a USB wireless VGA from IOGEAR (See the video below), a WebAround Web privacy screen and a lot more. The best part is a lot of prizes are from the Podcasters themselves. Caffination is giving some Coffee, Bageltech News gave a NYC canvas print, Bwana.org is giving Team Fortress 2 for PC and a T-Shirt, SDRNews is giving a MagicJack, Techpodcasts (Geek News Central) is giving an iPod Touch: there is a lot more.

Wednesday, July 1st is when the contest starts. Check out the site before hand to which shows are giving codewords for the week.

Bands

It’s summertime, so the band ramps up in it’s playing. It’s all well and good – I enjoy taking the trips and playing the gigs. This last weekend I played 3 shows and it wasn’t even Sunday. This afternoon is one more show. Next week is just about the same.

Interview

This last week, I was interviewed on the Isthmus – a local tabloid – style paper in the Madison area. The interview will be out next week, when that happens, I will post it.

PC/Mac Smackdown

Had lunch with Cal last Wednesday. He said – “Hey, why don’t you come on the show”. I said “Sure, why not?”. Therefore, I was on the PC / Mac Smackdown with Cal Davis and Rachel Baker.

Windows 7

Pre-Orders of Windows 7 means a significant discount. I have Windows 7 RC on my Dell D600 and really like how it works. What is even more interesting – Windows 7 works a lot better on that machine than when I put on Ubuntu 9.04. Ubuntu would lag when I was working – and I mean REALLY Lag. I would litterally select something, count to 5, then watch it execute.

I am really impressed with this OS, so I am excited this is coming out.

MJ, FF and EM AND BM

It was a sad week for a lot of people. Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson took the Trifecta this week as all three passed. Ed McMahon was the sidekick of Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show, Farrah Fawcett was the poster girl of the 70′s and of course, Michael Jackson was the King of Pop. While I was never a big MJ fan, I do appreciate his music and also how he let Weird Al Yankovic to make fun of his music.

I remember when I first heard “Eat it” 0n the radio. While I never listened to “Bad”, I did have the “Even Worse” album which featured “Fat”.

*Update – Just as I published this, the Internet found out that Billy Mays – the Oxy Clean promoter (as well as Mighty Putty, Big City Sliders, Kaboom and a lot more) was found dead at his  home. He was 50. I guess it’s more than a Trifecta…

Studio

This week was a lot of work with the studio. Only problem – I can’t find my staple gun. I had it, then it dissapeared. I am not sure where it went. AUGH!

Still, the new studio is doing well. I am hoping to record the first video there by Mid-week. My bedroom is getting cluttered with PC stuff and that needs to head down to the Dungeon. The door to that room is the main reason why I call it the Dungeon.

Looking at Phones

I have to admit, I have been looking at the iPhone 3GS. The one thing I like is I have fatter fingers. I was able to use the screen a lot better than with the 3G. For instance, when I hit the “N”, on the 3G, I would always miss and hit the “M”. However, with the 3GS, I have not done anything different and seem to be hitting the “N” key and actually getting an “N”.

I still have some tests to go. I am also looking at the Palm Pre, but in order to do that, I would have to switch to Sprint, which I don’t know if I am ready to do. Android is a possibility, but I really don’t want the G1. I am waiting for the Lenovo version.

—–

That’s pretty much it this week. Keep watching the site for more info on the contest. Of course if you want to give a prize for the contest, let me know.

The July contest will be a little more involved than we normally do. However, it will be a blast as we are involving many different podcasters to join in to the Summer of Podcasts – Podcast Carnivale. Here is the official press release:

Summer of Podcasts – Podcast Carnivale set for Month of July

Podcasters are joining together to give away a lot of great prizes in the Summer of Podcasts – Podcast Carnivale contest. All you have to do is listen to win.

Madison, WI June 27th 2009  — Podcastmadness.com announces a new contest for Podcasters called “The Summer of Podcasts”. It will involve several podcasters during the month of July and will end on August 9th when we draw winners for the “Podcast Carnivale”.

On July 1st, head over to http://www.podcastmadness.com. We will give you a few podcasts to listen to. Within the podcast, you will hear a “Codeword”. Head back over to podcastmadness.com and enter in the codeword.

On August 9th, we will hold the first ever “Podcast Carnivale”, starting at 12 PM CST. It will be an open forum, a display of items, couple of reviews, a Techpodcast Roundtable (at 3 PM CST) and it will all wrap up with the drawing of winners at 6 PM CST. http://www.podcastcarnivale.com is where the event will be held.

“This is a great contest and I am proud to be spearheading”, says Jeffrey Powers of the Geekazine Podcast. “We have some awesome prizes from companies like IOGEAR, IVY Worldwide and Webaround. We also have some great prizes donated by the Podcasters themselves.”

Coffee, a $50 gift card to http://www.nba.com, a canvas print of NY city – As well as a Wireless USB VGA from IOGEAR, an iPod Touch from Techpodcasts.com and much more.

“We will also accept any contest donations during the month of July, so if you have a product you want to have added to the list, let me know”. Jeffrey adds.

About PodcastMadness:

Contact:

Jeffrey Powers, Geekazine

Geekazine
608-205-4378

http://www.geekazine.com

Geekazine is a part of http://www.jmpenterprise.com and a proud member of http://www.techpodcasts.com

###

Press Release can be found at:

Press Release: Summer of Podcasts – Podcast Carnivale set for Month of July

Day Off - Sort of
A late Ramblings this week as I decided to stay offline last week. It was a long week and I was playing all weekend. It has been a while since I last took more than 24 hours off a computer, so that is a big feat for me.

HP Tech Forum

I had a fun time talking and working with Andy McCaskey and Kara Karsten with SDRNews. We had such a blast. We also put forward the mobile interview booth rig. We call it the “MacGyver” rig. Nonetheless, it was connected to uStream and we were able to conduct a few interviews for the event. Check out all the info on the Twitter log at #HPTF.

Great to meet some new bloggers: Shane Pitman of Neowin, John Obeto of AbsoluteWindows. We had a great week along with Halley, Tom, Calvin and Rebecca from HP and Buzzcorps.

Fryes at Vegas

Also got to go to Vegas again. While we didn’t run around town as much as with CES (everything was contained in Mandalay Bay), we did venture out to go to Fryes. It’s actually my first time at Fryes and I was pretty impressed. Of course, it was Vegas, so the store has a big slot machine up in it’s store front and stacks of coins as barrier posts. The inside was very big and complete. Andy had to get a new scratch drive since the one he brought died. We got what we needed and headed back to the safe Mandalay Bay

Mandalay Bay

Wow. This is a city contained in a building. That is, if you have the money for it. My room – which I call the “Bob Newhart” room – was decked with all the amenities. TV in the bedroom and the bathroom. You can connect an external device easily and be watching a movie while soaking in the tub.

The casino area was always hoppin. There were bands both on the “Sushi Pop” and “House of Blues” stages. Restaurants all over the building. A small walk and you are at “theHotel”. They even have their own beach – where we watched the Beach Boys play a set. Well, it was a short set for me, since I had a flight to catch.

Podcast on the show floor

I had the unique opportunity to record the show from the HPTF Expo floor. It was great because I didn’t have to set up a rig, do a show, rip it down and go to another area to post. I would also like to thank Simon Calder for helping out with the show notes so I could focus on other things.

What I got out of the show

Of course, there were a lot of things I have learned from this event. I have run server rooms before, but I was a little out of touch with the current technologies. FCoE was the big one I learned about. Also building a server is a lot different than before. Greener, more powerful and reliability were the best parts.

The Keynotes were just amazing. Learning about how these big companies are working on green technologies is amazing. Dr. Michio Kaku and his views for the future were amazing. A “Smart toilet” is definitely something to get excited about.

The Weekend

I got back to Madison at 8 AM on Friday. It was a long trip (5 hours, turned into 7 due to timezone changes). What was worse was on the trip back, I was not really impressed with the airline I flew. The one thing I noticed is they were not really friendly.

An example: We flew through a couple storm fronts during the trip. Most airlines would say “This is the Captain. We are seeing some turbulance, so please remain in your seats and buckle your belts. Thank you.”

The airline I was on? Well: “Please buckle your seatbelts”.

The airline also had screens drop from above. While I would normally invite this, I was in a evening flight. I had difficulties sleeping when something like a video monitor is playing. Of course, I didn’t pack my sleeping mask. Therefore, I was stuck watching “Confessions of a Shopoholic”. While other people loved this movie, I didn’t find it as interesting.

I got home around 9 AM, in which I proceeded to collapse on the bed for a couple hours. Woke up, caught up on some work I missed during the week, then headed off to play a show. Since it was out of town, I had to pack for another night away from home.

Band Gigs

Saturday was a day of playing. We played a friends graduation, then it was up to the Dells for our regular show at the Baja bar. There were 4 different Bachelorette parties that night and they were not in the Baja at the same time. As one party left, the next one showed up. Crazy.

New Guitar

While we were in transit to the Graduation party, we stopped at a local music store. There, I found a used Acoustic / Electric guitar. I picked it up as a spare for future shows. It needs some work to it, but not much to make it ready to play out.

Lazy Sunday? Not.

Of course, the day started out with this post. A quick breakfast, then it’s getting things ready for the week. Have to work on “Week in Tech History”, then I have to figure out how to put together the new video studio. Lots of soundproofing to do.

I suppose I should get to it. Thanks again to everyone for a great week. How do you top that?

Contest has closed. Thanks to all participants.

This month we are giving away an Epson Artisan 700 printer. This is a wireless printer /scanner with CD/DVD printing capability. Here are all the options:

• 4 in 1 Print / Copy / Scan / Ultra Hi-Def Photo
• Up to 38 ppm, photos in as fast as 10 sec1
• Auto Photo Correction; preview on LCD
• Professional quality CD/DVD printing
• Wi-Fi and Ethernet networking
• Scan and restore faded photos
• Ultra Hi-Definition photos last 4x longer than photo lab prints
• Print personal note paper & greeting cards

There are three parts to this contest.

• Follow on Twitter – @geekazine
• Comment below with your twitter name
• In the next few weeks, during the Quickcast – Week in Tech History podcast (published on Mondays), I will announce the third requirement.
  • Check out the latest quickcast on this – we give you the 3rd step – a codeword to enter in twitter. #geekazine rocks.

On June 30th, we will draw a winner from all the names recieved (randomizer on the comment list). We will have other prizes as well, to be announced later.

Good Luck!

Video explaination:

Press release here: http://www.free-press-release.com/news/200905/1243448369.html

Last week in this place. I ate a lot of Brats this last weekend. Goodbye to friend ‘Supergirl’. Show Prep on Google Docs. Still need an iPhone App developer.

Take the Geekazine Podcast Survey

Try GoToAssist free for 30 days – No CC needed: GoToAssist.com/techpodcasts.
Put Your Financials into order – Edward Jones

All Show Notes are also on http://delicious.com/geekazine/88

Hotline – 608-205-4378 – geekazine (at) gmail.com

Download the show
Subscribe: Zune – iTunes – TechPodcasts – Blubrry – Stitcher

I – S.U.N. (Straight Up News)
Lenovo S12 on ION
Kumo or Bing – Microsoft in a transition
The 10 TB Disc – All your music and movies on a DVD
Win 7 Netbook Strategy Rethought
iPhone Painting on cover of New Yorker
Hulu LIVE – Dave Matthews Concert is the first
Aneesh Chopra CTO – Senate approves
Apple Accepts Eucalyptus – a win for an iPhone App
Followup on Craigslist Lawsuit
Google U Libraries
Diamond Encrusted Nokia
- Palm Pre – $549

JOTW – I don’t know what I’ve been told… Vista is the Army’s Gold….

II
Twitter TV? – TV in 140 characters or less.
The Vista Army – What are they thinking?

QOTC – Will you or do you have a Netbook?

III
Will Netbooks Fail? – Will we find a Happy Medium?
Circuit City Return Policy – Be ready to give up Junior.

Extras:
Red Bull Diet – Good for you?
The New Soundwave – Transformers USB 4 port hub

Steampunk PC

Bud Adjustable Workstation

YouTubin:
Dell Mini 10v on Ubuntu, Android and XP

CES Videos – Geekazine
CMSExpo Videos – SDRNews

The Geekazine Weekly Podcast is produced every week for distribution on Wednesdays. Feel free to contact Geekazine for more information. You can also Twitter – Plurk – Myspace – Facebook Group – FriendFeed or Digg the Podcast. The Geekazine Podcast is under a Creative Commons no-deriv license

Saturday March 21, 2009 – 4pm Eastern – 1pm Pacific

We have three presentations

* United Plastics – Soundproofing the Home Theater and Podcast Studio
* OReilly Technical School – Online Certification Programs thru University of Illinois
* Geekazine Podcast – Jeff Powers Secrets of Microphone Placement and EQ

target="_blank">Free TV : Ustream